I despise WINZ.
It is a weapon used to beat the poorest and weakest amongst us.
They degrade people and are purposely obtuse to deny beneficiaries their full entitlements while lending money to the poorest people to buy essentials.
How corrupt is that as a social policy…
Beneficiaries owe record $2.1b to Govt as cost of living soars
Low income New Zealanders now owe more than $2 billion to the Ministry of Social Development as they continue to have to borrow money to survive.
…this is the neoliberal welfare industry for you.
The madness is that MSD sees this debt as an asset!
They have a vested interest in loading more debt up on beneficiaries! We have loaded up billions in debt to the poorest amongst us creating debt slaves.
The state are acting like a drug dealer peddling desperation and entrapping people into literal debt coffins.
When MSD aren’t dealing in desperation loans, they are using vast mass surveillance powers to trawl through beneficiary social media accounts to catch them out in what MSD decides as ‘relationships’, and then claim beneficiaries are committing benefit fraud and then put them in debt to MSD!
MSD don’t tell beneficiaries what exactly amounts to a relationship and they do so on purpose to trap beneficiaries into a never ending debt cycle that makes them debt slaves until death, and this is all fine according to Labour.
461,000 Kiwis are struggling with MSD debt, this is a disgrace yet WINZ still manage to show a level of cruelty that stuns you…
Twenty-six-year-old Nykala Garrett was forced to quit her job at the end of last year to care for her partner Rikki Tako, who has terminal cancer and less than six months to live.
Since then, the couple and their five children have been relying on a Work and Income Supported Living Payment.
“We want to enjoy the time we have left together, and be positive, and have experiences, and do things that bring us joy, and then, instead, my days are consumed with trying to organise all of this,” Garrett said.
…firstly this is another example of how important Newshub are, secondly how evil of WINZ.
It says something about the way they see the people they are supposed to help.
I despise WINZ.
When the revolution comes, let’s bomb all the WINZ offices first!
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.
New Zealand does have a wealth tax. It only applies to those on benefits.
100% Millsy! brilliant comment
No bombs needed, just tax corporations and excessive wealth, and give a UBI for everyone bringing in less than the average wage.
Winz can provide a valuable service to society as a whole if it’s not constrained by 80’s political thinking.
It’s so wrong!
But WINZ has its own rules. If this family had won 400k in lotto, should WINZ cut their benefit or continue paying? What is the right level after which WINZ can cut benefits??? This is such a subjective area.
What are you on about? Benefits are means tested. If your “circumstances change” you must inform WINZ and in the event of a Lotto windfall that you describe – the benefit would be cut – end of story. In this circumstance, I think the cessation is justified.
Our pension is not means tested but it should be.
Typical envy comment .Apart from one period when I was a caregiver I have worked and paid tax for 53 years.A portion of this tax was for a pension .Some do not work all their life and they get the pension as well. It is fairer and cheaper to pay all than have public servants vetting your worth.
Allowing for price adjustments over those decades, all you pasid in was pennies on the dollar, so now you’re just a wildly disproportionate net drain on society at $500pw each.
Typical brown boomer stain on the economy and society in general.
the allen by ‘brown stain’ I suppose your referring to your undies when you forget your diaper rather than a racial jibe
Obviously “brown boomer stain” equates to shit stain and not skin tone.
Like calling your piss poor come back attempt a weak brown dribble is just a metaphor for diarrhoea.
yeah? but it riled you up allen —mission acomplished
It’s good you made your intention known, an so early in the game, too – It makes going forward much easier.
ohhhhh I’m scared allen
Not really. Muldoon won an election on scrapping Labour’s superannuation scheme and promised that every one would be paid superannuation out of the tax they paid. As Brian Gaynor stated, the single biggest policy mistake in this countries history. National. The superior stewards of the economy lol.
If a portion of the tax you paid was for the pension then the government would have a very large fund for pension payments, they don’t & ever since Muldoon scrapped Big Norm’s pension saving plan national super has been a pay-as-you-go scheme which is why Michael Cullen started the fund to help cover the baby boomer bulge.
Benefits are not means tested.
It is income tested.
One off cash payment is not income.
Benny. WINZ is wrong. A one- off cash payment does not count as income, and the rules on assets were thrashed out long ago.
In any case, fraud persons summonsing a lady who is about to lose her life partner, forever, is utterly barbaric. Fraud is deceiving, or intent to deceive, and there’s nothing to suggest this, when the Givealittle appeal was open and transparent. WINZ have added to this family’s stress levels. The Public Service Commissioner needs to summons WINZ about this.
The fact that the appeal may save WINZ and the New Zealand taxpayer further money along the track should have been welcomed by WINZ.
Winz is run by the same type of public servants that you want to run a grocery business and control other assets.
You are against this government reducing their public servant numbers to pre 2017 .
What are you on about – please clarify
You are to thick to get it even if we dumbed it down significantly.
WINZ/MSD run a sadistic punishment maze and should be retired for good, replaced by a Basic Income for all citizens administered by IRD, with a new special needs agency set up for disabled etc.
A friend of mine on dialysis who uses his one good hand to make knitted items on a rig, for his Church store to feel useful, moved from Auck to Whangārei with family, all cool MSD said, but they cut off his benefit the next week, and called him into a get work ready meeting! he has been in a fucking wheel chair for years since a stroke…he was in tears…but it was sorted with his ex tow truck industry brother being appointed as an advocate for any further dealings.
WINZ/MSD are dirty fuckers and some case managers just love putting the slipper into vulnerable people, and a few go with it for fear of their own jobs I guess. The sad part is a number of them are bloody PSA members, but hey, it could be their turn soon if the 3 Amigos slash public servant numbers.
I sympathise and agree @ TM.
I had a business in Ch Ch and also worked in the film industry. Then the earthquakes hit and I was suddenly without an income and any spare cash I had was quickly spent on Range Rovers’ and Meth so it didn’t take long before I found myself on the bones of my arse in an empty house I’d originally bought for my parents in a God awful town called Balclutha. I had to go to WINZ because I needed to be able to afford the means of avoiding reality and was shocked to discover that the staff there were liars and also manipulative and devious too. To get information out of them I had to know about the information I needed to get in order to know what they were deliberately not telling me. WINZ is populated by non human creatures who get their damp and stiffies from bullying and subjugating those most at risk. They’re literally inhuman. My case worker looked like a three tier 1970’s wedding cake wearing a dusty nylon wig and she reeked of formaldehyde or similiar, perhaps fly spray? No doubt to hide the stink coming off her feet as she waddled about shuffling bits of A4 paper while mumbling ” Nooo… Sorreee” with a sneer born of inbred, intergenerational practice. We must always remember ; It’s not us, it’s them and we must remember. those horrible creatures who bedevil those of us who find ourselves in need? They’re the ones spending our tax money while bennies must pay tax on the money they don’t get enough of.
Cool story CB, shows you in a different light….not only an envious man but a loser in life also due to your own decisions.
Now how can you make Roger Douglas the person to blame for your bad life decisions….go on, you know you want to!
Im right a brother of Cameron Slater.
Ooh nasty – but most people like you, wouldn’t tell such truth. People do go off the rails when hit by unexpected damaging events; explains the Covid angst. Don’t come on with that sort of stuff Imright, that’s the attitude that is going to kill a lot of us in approaching future, that’s why we write here; to work out better ways. Vicious stuff from you should go to some other blog – one for the mentally churlish.
Yes the countryboy is typical of a left wing moaning loser,it’s all someone else’s fault,mainly Roger Douglas.
You can pull your head in too. Enough Tory fuckfaces on this site that seem barely able to contribute more than a derisory sentence.
Is it too much to ask for some to actually contribute an original thought…
Have you ever tried to work with IRD. Just getting hold of them is nightmare.
That is true – but is because they are underfunded to provide the image that anything run by the State is incompetent … but the reality is more “bums on seats” are required to increase the service provision of the government department.
The government – and previous Labour ones too – have ignored IRD so now it is almost impossible to get hold of them if you actually need to. People simply give up trying and this often costs them more long term as they continue to accrue tax debt.
Similar can be said of most government departments – yet this current government (to provide tax cuts to those who supported them during the election) at the expense of others who also supported them and the rest. The result is that most of us are poorer (no tax cut) and access to critical government services is cut back further than ever. Then the government has the audacity to blame the public service for the lack of service provision that they themselves have actually caused … and on the back of this criticism start to privatise functions that were previously government roles … welcome to the new new world order according to Nat/ACT/Winston First!
It’s called a telephone screening menu, Trevor, you just have to push the right buttons. They’ve been around for a while but don’t worry too much, you’ll eventually get the hang of it.
Simple. Give it to a relative who can then gift it to him by way of paying for the things he wants to do. But you really shouldn’t have to play stupid financial games to please fkin winz.
Kim. Ok, but WINZ summonsed this client to appear before a fraud person. That’s heavy stuff. It suggests that WINZ tracks clients on social media, or that somebody else reported her. Store detectives cannot say that they knew that somebody was going to shoplift, they just can’t, but WINZ can apparently accuse people of wrongdoing without any evidence of wrong doing. If they really thought that there were pitfalls in the Givealittle appeal, there were better ways of addressing it than being big fat bullies.
Long term afflictions of any sort inflict huge and unexpected demands upon a family, both emotional and financial, with the looming loss of a loved one hanging over everything. This client could delegate someone else to handle the funds, but still WINZ’s lack of sensitivity to the whole situation is disgraceful, and these sub-human Gestapo must be called to account.
I have been there myself. Its a common tactic to threaten you with the police unless you admit to what they say you did. Usually they don’t have the evidence so lie and cheat confessions from sometimes innocent clients. I was just lucky i knew what they were doing and stood my ground in the face of being threatened with court and jail. But i can see people being threatened with jail and losing custody of children unless you admit what we say you did is a much to powerful weapon for a bureaucrat to have.
Sounds tough,Kim. With this client, they should have requested that she have an appointment with her case manager. This interaction was too confrontational, and unnecessarily so, non- constructive, and shocking in the sad circumstances.
Threatening with police is abhorrent, and it should not be an accepted practice. A WINZ service manger told me that most of their staff are ex clients themselves, and that she couldn’t understand their lack of empathy. Anyone meeting with WINZ staffers should have a support person, or if possible an advocate. Various places have volunteer advocates. Copies of anything sent them need to be kept. They lose stuff.
Luxury Luxon knew all about HIS entitlements the other week. He couldn’t tell us often enough how entitled he was to his 52k housing allowance.
But WINZ clients don’t have accountants and lawyers advising them on all their entitlements and are at the mercy of mean-spirited, punitive, over-zealous nincompoops who pretend to work there.
It’s a pity those well-paid lawyers and accountants that Luxon has, don’t get down to their local WINZ offices and give their expertise for free to people like Ms. Garrett and Mr. Tako. They tried to help themselves and they get punished. It’s a one-off payment and hasn’t happened yet.
Oh, I know, they were doing her a favour telling her in advance. She should be grateful, like Luxon’s grateful renters!!!!!!
I hope the officials in that room telling Ms. Garrett off, treating her like a naughty little girl, were squirming with embarrassment. They disgust me.
When Paula was in charge of MSD someone tried to tell me, she was really great as Min. of Social Development. She used to bring scones in for the workers and they lapped it up. They were completely taken in by a few lousy scones. Shows what sort of intelligence is required for a WINZ job.
Joy, So Paula made gave scones to the workers. Great. Ardern baked scones for pop star Ed Sheeran and got photographed with her arms around DJ’s, you know, the persons who were prioritised ahead of doctors and nurses during the pandemic. PR is important for pollies, but they’re not elected to make themselves look good, and they are not very good at looking good either. Lack of focus. Or conscience. Talent. All those scones could have made quite a difference to other sorts of people.
It’s the little things that count Annie. They know that as well as anyone and making a good impression can work wonders at times.
Also the WINZ workers wanting to be seen as aligned to the winning side, one of the winners. It’s very alluring to know you are with the in-crowd.
We all have our opinions of the appalling ‘lottery’ and ‘knowing people in high places’ at MIQ. Jacinda, having ok-ed that scheme, should have had enough sense to keep well clear, herself. But, she loved her photo opportunities and once they suck up to celebrities, brain does out the window.
People seem to think our leaders need charisma. I’d rather they had integrity.
It’s all a big ego contest now and foolish voters love it. Being seen with winners!
Charisma, great word. Integrity, a better word. Problem with Ardern may have been seeing herself as a celeb. Could be an Auckland sort of thing. The scones for a visiting pop star was a bit colonial cringe, but it might have impressed some punters – juxtaposed with the child poverty which helped get her elected, it wasn’t the most discerning choice. Prioritising DJ’s was amoral, in the circs.
Welfarism is responsible for so much of society’s ills and has perpetuated poverty, victimhood, crime, entitlement, laziness, family breakdown, gambling the list is endless.
I know Jack and completely agree. Just look at the dysfunctional families on the right who cry poor and need handouts like tax credits on their rental properties, the list is endless.
Look at all the families that will become dysfunctional once this govt. has finished with them too.
Some of the brighter ones seem to have realised that what they voted for is not what they got, already.
Putting money back into hardworking kiwis pockets actually means putting our money into the pockets of a few who already have a fair bit and don’t really need it.
‘Welfarism’ by the wealthy ‘is responsible for many of today’s ills.’ They would expect their last few months to be happy and full of good experiences, not defending themselves against mean-spirited paper pushers at WINZ.
But I know what Ms. Garrett should do so as to be able to enjoy her last months with the family together. She should get her lawyers and accountant to organise it all instead of wasting her days doing that herself.
Like the wealthy do.
You are a stupid cunt eh. Most of them are woman you retard.
Delightful prose Sam.
Fuck your delight
This troll-farm Tory puppet is so poorly paid that he can’t get his boilerplate propaganda correct.
Wall Street wants to get its hands on Social Security, and the lobbying for a full privatisation started back in the 1970’s. These efforts were centred around the Investment Company Institute (which lobbies on behalf of the mutual fund industry), the Securities Industry Association, the Council of Life Insurance, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Cato Institute.
The campaign contributions then started flowing: State Street, B.A.M.L., Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and other financiers; then lobbying from the outsourcing firms, including Capita, Group Four Securicor (G-4.S.) and Serco.
The latest to jump aboard were the A.N.Z. Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, the N.A.B. and Westpac. Their lobbyists proposed a system where Social Security funds would be trapped inside compulsory chequing accounts — that pay no interest, allow no withdrawals, and force all payments through the Visa and MasterCard network. The banks formed a consortium (C.D.C.T. Working Group), and already trialled the accounts (using Centrelink clients, and accounts issued by Indue Ltd., a mutual bank consortium).
Wall Street wants to get its hands on Social Security, and the lobbying for a full privatisation started back in the 1970’s.
The Dow Jones average of equities on January 1, 1975 was 632. Forty-five years later, on January 1, 2020, that 632 had grown to 28,538. Had a low-income worker with a lifetime-average taxable income of only $8.10 per hour paid the Social Security tax (15.3% inc the employer contribution) into his own equity fund that tracked with the Dow, and left it unattended, he would have retired with $1,000,258.
unless the entities that held those funds went belly up as seems to happen to them regularly. then you would have nothing. But don’t let history get in the way of a good ideology.
Money is the root of all evil jack. The more money you have the more evil you are.
For one last time, just for you jack…
THERE IS NO TRICKLE DOWN
Your confusing welfare with welfarism
You could say the same about the alcohol industry. The basic problem is that people deny that they are their brother’s keeper so they use whatever edge they have to provide for themself with no concern for others. Teaching someone to fish is considered the better policy except that now the bulk trawlers have caught all the fish & the little person has next to no chance of catching the fish. That was an average at best illustration & I was not actually referring to fishing but when people are suffering & no one else is looking after them then the government ends up picking up the pieces. We could ignore suffering but eventually, those in distress would combine their efforts & use force to get what they want (see Haiti for an extreme example) so while welfare has problems it is better than not having welfare.
Trickle down doesn’t exist. It’s a delusion to make people that neoliberal economics works.
That’s why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting… poorer.
The faster we end the neoliberal scam that we’ve been sold, the better it will be for everyone.
Is the help and money we seem to be bailing out our farmers is the aide means tested I doubt it? DOUBLE STANDARDS WHEN IT COMES TO AIDE
The cost of living crisis is a money drought for the poor could Todd McClay primary industries minister declare a money drought emergency at PaknSav and spread some largesse amongst the hungry please!
In other news, Winston reckons he’s going to run an inquiry into the grocery oligopoly and the Australian banking cartel.
The hundred day, is now becoming a three way, totalitarian fuck.
winz frontline staff and middle managers are low quality and dim, employed for reasons other than ability they’re so grateful at lucking into an ‘office job’ they dutifully do as they are told.
rather than engage in a long lecture look up the current post office scandle in the uk to get the general gist
NZ has no shame about its failures and lack of modern services and citizenship. We used to talk about being like a banana republic as if that was bad. But bananas are quite high in useful food requirements and with the change in climate we will probably be able to actually make them a major crop which will somehow be controlled by Dole or some foreign outfit. And another useful plant hemp, will still be verboten. SNAFU.
We have been outed by the UN but that doesn’t matter to the pollies and their twoikers. Well they do it in the UK so why can’t we, is probably the arrogant answer if questioned. Meanwhile the money keeps rolling in and if something goes wrong – set up a judicial enquiry which can last beyond the next election date. We are being rorted by our government. There are some advantages to living in this country which will draw people in but the tide of human caring is going out and leaves a muddy low-water bog, and what can move then, we’re stuck with WINZ, where nobody wins but someone called Don or El Capo or possibly witch-hunter can somehow prevail when society gets sick enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Hopkins (and Stearne – extraordinary)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crushing_(execution)
I love me some WINZ. We’d be fucked without it!!!
Jack and Joy oh dear your trolls need to go back to your supports and re-think your ‘arguments’. Welfarism is not even 100 years old and the ills of capitalism are thousands of years old – failure of capitalist systems led to the development of the Welfare State – which has been so severely watered down since the 1980’s it is difficult to call NZ a Welfare State. More like the tokenist system in the US.
We are rapidly heading into a time when there simply will NOT be jobs for everyone – even competent individuals may find themselves out of work with minimal welfare support. This will result in a situation similar to what is occurring currently in Haiti where the government will abdicate control of some parts of the country that are in the hands of gangs (the new ‘feudal warlords’) where the rule of law is lost.
Some folk call this a Banana Republic – this is where NZ is rapidly heading – great work ACT, National and NZ (Winston) First … although Labour’s lack of action nearly puts it into the same category of the three previously mentioned political parties – good work!
Sorry Bob, mine was a bit tongue in cheek there. Read it again.
In short, I did not agree with jack.
The delightful comment under mine, wasn’t meant for me either. That was in reply to jack as well.
It is my position that capitalism seeks to repaire the damage done by its older brother, imperialism. What I’d like to do is talk about where the New Zealand economy is being driven towards very deliberately and conscious social policy while taking advantage of significant changes in the economy and social systems that have occurred since 2017.
I’ll stick to the indulgent self flagellating egotists that occasionally describe themselves accurately for instance when Winston, Seymour and Luxon was speaking to Maori on the treaty grounds when they say as Winston Churchill once said that “pakeha have gotten all that they want in territory and wish only to be left alone in unmolested enjoyment of the vast and splendid positions, mainly acquired by violence which often seems less reasonable to others as it does to us,” for some reason which means a lesson in reason.
At least Winston Churchill was reasonably awake to utter those words in private as it was taken from secret cabinet meeting papers and now when those words reach kiwi ears the coalition of chaos are careful to brutalise those who can not on there own fight back 95 years later. And if the internal documents odbtoday were explored we will no doubt find accurate descriptions of themselves by the coalition of chaos 100%
What seems unreasonable to us today would have been found to be a level above unreasonable to imperial England one example is the godfather of capitalism Adam Smith 200 years ago in 1876 when he condemned the savagery of Europeans creating the divisions of the first and third worlds but Adam Smith went on to lash with his serpent tongue the domestic analogues who are those who want to enjoy the splendid positions, and in New Zealand. They are not kiwis, English or European rather those that enjoy the splendour are a sector among us who Adam Smith describes as the principal architects of policy who use there power over the economy to control policy and to design policy so that there own interests who Smith said would peculiarly be attended to no matter how grieves the impact was on others
There is a myth and mystism being taught about Adam Smith who was the principle architect of capitalism when infact what he was actually saying and how Adam Smith would have regarded if he actually heard those outrages speeches on the treaty grounds would have demanded relative equality of conditions as an elementary principle of justice and morality. A position that was joined with by the likes of Richard Sedon, Michael Savage, Lange, Clark, authentic conservatives like Jim Bolger and of course Jacinda Ardern. All of whom recognised that “equality of conditions” is a prerequisite to democracy.
Equality of condition is as true as it was during imperialism as it is true today and regularly denied to special categories. The same issues that arose in America as it did in new Zealand with its founding documents around 70 years after the ceremonies in 1870s America basically the framers of Americas constitutional documents amd subsequent constitutional frameworks emphasise the priority of government as Jamez Madison the principle architect of the American Constitution was to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority. And New Zealand’s system has been designed so that power is placed in the very few hands of the owners of property, protected by democracy. That is the way New Zealand is designed and that is the way it will remain.
Now Luxon as I have come to understand him believes that he is behaving like a 21st century gentleman with quips like “another stuff tabloid.” Yknow only The National Party of New Zealand could produce such degenerate Prime Ministers yknow with all the Romans, Greeks and great generals like Alexader the Great in Luxons imagination and with in a hundred days in government finds the reality of the situation very different.
In the time Luxon enjoys the splendour of New Zealand as Prime Minuster, all kiwis every single one of you will learn, as the wealthy learns to use the new post covid19 controls of government and as Adam Smith described it hundreds of years ago as politics being a big shadow cast by compqnies / corporations (of New Zealand) making changes at the margins.
Let me stress that these are all truisms of imperialism and capitalism and are as true today as they were hundreds of years ago.
While poor people in New Zealand struggle to navigate the policy Landscape poisoned by the Right Honourable Prime Mininister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon. It is important to remember that he will be a pivotal figure in New Zealand’s history for hundreds of years into the future and how his first hundred days in government played out and inparticular how it ends. I can’t run through the future with you but I can say a few points that’s worth keeping in mind.
Yknow Maori have there backs up and are very lively. Maori independence will remain long after the Right Honourable Christopher Luxon ends his tenure as Prime Minister. That’s after the tail end of having there culture subsumed into corporate New Zealand. Corporations get to use Maori wonders, splendours and treasures unmolested.
A lot of troll farms produce content and slogans like envy, lazy, incompetence etc. Lobbyist are destroying democratic rights, human rights. Marriage equality is dead. Only about 20% of marriages after 1999 will end in death do you part. The foundation of democracy which is marriage is now the sole position of the wealthy which even destroys the values of the National Party and its high cultural values are all dead.
This is all exactly how the architects of capitalism warned it would happen.
There has been many gains in New Zealand since 1840 and there has been many loses. That cycle will do as all a favour if we all remember that.